CREEDE HINSHAW: Signs along the roadway

With the strains of Alleluia still ringing in the aftermath of last Sunday’s glorious Easter, I am remembering the privilege I had of preaching some of the Holy Week Services at Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church in Albany.

Preachers – even retired ones – never stop looking for sermon material, and my four-hour round trip to Albany down I-75, Georgia 300, State Road 32 and Philema Road gave me some things to think about.

Coming into town up above Chehaw Park, I passed an interesting scene on either side of Philema Road.

I don’t suppose there’s ever been a church alongside a highway that I haven’t taken a good look at. Preachers are like that. And so, coming into town, I was drawn to a brick church along the east side of the Philema Road called Christ’s Sanctified Holy Church.

That was a pretty impressive name for a church, I thought. Since to be sanctified is to be made holy, it seemed like this congregation was twice holy, a pretty impressive feat for any group of Christians.

No sooner had I begun to ponder the implications of the church name then I came upon another sign, just slightly down the highway and on the west side of the road. This sign, prominently displayed in the yard of what appeared to be a private resident, said, “Dent Devil.” It was one of those businesses that removes the dings and scrapes from your automobile. My 2005 Prius could have used some attention.

But the juxtaposition of those two signs made me chuckle. The devil on one side of the road … Christ’s sanctified church on the other.

I wonder if these neighbors have shared a laugh about Philema Road being the divide between Christ and the devil?

There were other dueling signs on the interstate. Somebody should rename I-75 Billboard Boulevard. It surely has to be one of the ugliest stretches of highway anywhere in the United States.

But what is interesting to this preacher is that, scattered among the gazillions of billboards erected to the great god of commerce, there are dueling billboards for good and evil.

On the tawdry side are the billboards for strippers and adult superstores. On the holy side are billboards announcing God’s justice, with flames warning of hell.

Here’s my vote for taking down every last billboard and leaving us motorists with time to contemplate the scenery that was created by God.

Finally, returning north to Macon, I was passed by a little red car with Wisconsin tags and a two-word bumper sticker: “ENJOY BEING.”

I liked the message, which I believe contains at least a kernel of the teaching of Jesus. The goodness of God-given life is certainly to be enjoyed. We know this from the creation stories in the first chapters of Genesis. Here’s a concluding question or you: what two-word bumper sticker might you affix to your car?

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].